2022 Honorees
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 |
|---|---|
| Maja Krzic University of British Columbia |
Richard Farrell University of Saskatchewan |
2022 CSSS Fellow Award to Dr. Maja Krzic
Dr. Maja Krzic is a well-known international soil scientist, a passionate teacher, and one of the top-ranked instructors in the Faculty of Land and Food Systems at the University of British Columbia. Maja is the founder of the Virtual Soil Science Learning Resources Group (https://soilweb.ca/), a collaborative teaching effort among Canadian scientists, students, and multimedia experts focused on development of open access soil science educational resources. To address the need for better integration of soil science into high school programs across Canada, in 2009, Maja initiated and continue to lead a national collaborative program Soil 4 Youth (https://soil4youth.soilweb.ca/).
Maja developed new knowledge by combining soil science concepts and the impact of humans on soil properties and processes in crop, grassland, and forest ecosystems. Among her significant contribution to the CSSS, Maja established the Soil Education Committee in 2014, one of the few in the world, to provide soil scientists with a platform for various education initiatives, and also served as President of the Society and member of various committees within the Society focused on promotion of soil science. Maja has an unparalleled commitment to teaching excellence and innovation; and her ongoing dedication and commitment to students has been well recognized with 21 major teaching awards, including prestigious 3M National Teaching Fellow (2016).
2022 CSSS Fellow Award to Dr. Richard Farrell
Dr. Rich Farrell is an internationally recognized Soil Scientist, known for his research in carbon and nitrogen cycling in cropping systems, with a particular focus on greenhouse gas emissions from those systems, and for his extensive work in remediation and reclamation. His work has provided invaluable information to agricultural producers in Canada and has directly contributed to the development of the methodology used to estimate soil-emitted nitrous oxide emissions utilized by the Canadian National Inventory Report. He has contributed evidence supporting the development of federal GHG mitigation policy in Canada.
His publication record is impressive, including many papers and book chapters specifically focusing on methodology with a variety of applications. His method development work has supported many others in their own research endeavours. Dr. Farrell also has contributed behind the scenes as an editor for various journals and as a reviewer for many journals including the CJSS.
Particularly notable are his many collaborations with soil scientists across Canada and beyond. Many soil scientists from around the world received their training under the tutelage of Dr. Farrell and several of his former students have gone on to careers at universities both in Canada and globally, and as Research Scientists with AAFC–clear evidence that Dr. Farrell’s contributions to soil science extend far beyond his own lab.
Dr. Farrell has made outstanding contributions to the CSSS. Throughout his career, he has taken on many different roles, most recently serving two terms as Western Councillor. During his terms, he made major revisions to the Society’s website, spending countless hours improving it’s look and utility. Dr. Farrell organized and chaired many different sessions and workshops at various CSSS annual meetings and served on the organizing committees of two annual meetings in Saskatoon. A particularly notable contribution is his work on the editorial team of the recently published Digging into Canadian soils: An introduction to soil science (https://openpress.usask.ca/soilscience/).
As described by one of his nominators, “Dr. Farrell is a soil scientist’s soil scientist” known for his intelligence, creativity and research skills, his deep caring for the well-being of others and the environment, and his commitment to the discipline.